New York City Makes Progress on $20B Climate Resiliency Plan

With the Sandy anniversary a day away, the de Blasio Administration has announced continued progress on the City’s OneNYC resiliency program that will prepare neighborhoods, economy and public services to withstand and emerge stronger from the impacts of climate change and other 21st century threats.

Some projects include dunes to protect coasts; storm water management and bluebelt projects to lessen flooding impacts and protect water quality; more precise flood maps; and more than $3 billion for reconstruction and resiliency projects across New York City Housing Authority developments impacted by the storm, including elevation of key infrastructure above flood lines and flood-proofing of ground-floor facilities.

Major coastal protection projects, like those being advanced in cooperation with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in Staten Island and Jamaica Bay (encompassing the Rockaway peninsula, South Queens and Southern Brooklyn), and others such as the East Side Coastal Resiliency project, the Red Hook Integrated Flood Protection System and the Hunts Point Resiliency Project, have met critical milestones in their planning and design process.

Several key recent milestones include:

• Agreement with FEMA to launch a partnership to draft new, more precise flood insurance maps that are saving 35,000 homeowners tens of millions of dollars in flood insurance premiums already. These new flood maps will reflect both current flood risk and future climate conditions, including sea level rise.
• Completion of a $28 million T-Groin project in Sea Gate to reduce coastal storm risk to residents and businesses on Coney Island, in partnership with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE).
• Reopening of the entire length of the Rockaway Boardwalk, setting a global standard for resilient shoreline design. The rebuilt five-and-a-half-mile stretch now extends from Beach 19th Street all the way to Beach 126th Street and will be fully complete by this summer.
• Launching an extensive community design process for a $45 million investment in flood risk reduction and resilient energy in Hunts Point, including a resilient energy pilot project.
• Created over 9,000 jobs since Sandy through the City’s resiliency program and successfully completed the Hurricane Sandy Business Loan and Grant Program, awarding over $54 million in support to nearly 350 businesses citywide. Through our BusinessPREP and RISE:NYC initiatives, we continue support small business resiliency with grants and innovative technologies.
• Improved infrastructure citywide through partnerships with regional infrastructure providers, including working successfully with Con Edison to invest over $1 billion in investments to harden their steam, electric and natural gas distribution infrastructure.
• Secured nearly $10 billion from FEMA for recovery and resiliency upgrades for our critical facilities. This includes over $3 billion for New York City Housing Authority projects with shovels in the ground on three major recovery projects totaling nearly $200 million and a fourth major project nearly completed; $1.7 billion for the Health and Hospitals Corporation (Coler, Bellevue, Metropolitan, Coney Island); and billions more for parks, water and wastewater projects, transportation, civic infrastructure projects and schools all across the city.
• Construction is underway on a $22 million Bluebelt project in Midland Beach to reduce local flooding and that also supports the implementation of the USACE armored levee project for integrated water management on the East Shore of Staten Island.